STAMFORD – The Zoning Board won’t vote until Monday, but it doesn’t look good for the Glenbrook neighbors who’ve been battling a developer’s proposal to build 26 townhouses in their backyards.
After a public hearing that drew so many participants that it had to be continued this week from early July, Zoning Chair David Stein asked for a sense of the board’s thoughts on the development.
“Does anyone think this should be denied?” Stein asked.
“I have no issues with it,” board member Bill Morris said.
“I can live with it,” said board member Rosanne McManus.
Members Racquel Smith-Anderson and Gerald Bosak Jr. agreed.
Stein said knowing members’ intent ahead of time will allow the staff of the Land Use Bureau, which supports the Zoning Board, to draw up a resolution of approval to ensure there is a vote on Monday.
“It sounds like it’s going to be a ‘yes,’” said Laurie Doig, who’s been concerned for years about the parcel at 91 Hope St., which abuts her Howes Avenue home.
The 2.3-acre parcel is the site of the abandoned Haitian American Catholic Center, owned by the Diocese of Bridgeport. A Fairfield developer, RRIT LLC, wants to rezone it from a single-family district to a multiple-family district in order to build the 26 townhouses.
Most of the single-family homes, including Doig’s, that surround the parcel have been there for 100 years – quite a feat in Glenbrook, a densely populated, racially diverse neighborhood of mixed residential and commercial uses on the edge of downtown.
Amid a push by developers to build more multi-family housing, homeowners in Glenbrook, where single-family houses are more affordable, are trying to push back.
It’s difficult, Doig said.
“I made regular calls to the diocese for three years; they were never very clear with their answers,” Doig said. “Then we find out there’s a developer, and we start meeting with their attorney. That went on for about a year.”
The developer’s original proposal was to build 44 units, which residents said was far too dense for the 2.3-acre parcel and for Hope Street. The narrow main artery that connects Glenbrook to downtown on one end and to Springdale on the other end is heavily congested. It’s lined with apartment buildings, condominium complexes, and businesses of all kinds, running parallel to Metro-North Railroad tracks.
“The developer listened to us when we said 44 units was too many,” Doig said.
Residents also were concerned about the height of the townhouses, the proximity to their property lines, the loss of green space, diminished privacy, drainage, and other matters.
The developer “worked with us on those things, too,” Doig said.
But issues remained, so this week RRIT LLC presented the Zoning Board with a whole new site plan for 91 Hope St.
Previously, nine townhouses had garages on the side and 17 had garages underneath, which makes the townhouses taller.
The new plan shows 16 townhouses with garages on the side and 10 with garages underneath. All the taller townhouses will be in the interior of the complex, away from neighbors’ homes, the developer’s attorney, Joseph Capalbo, told the board.
In the original plan, the 1953 former church and community center building was to be demolished along with a detached garage. A 1930 brick house with a slate roof was to be renovated as a 27th housing unit.
To make room for the larger number of side garages, the house now will be demolished, Capalbo said.
To better screen the complex from the neighbors, the developer will build a wall and put a fence on top of it.
But homeowners were despondent.
Ari Sam Disraelly of Nash Place called in to this week’s public hearing.
People “bought homes in a single-family zone and now you are changing” that, Disraelly said. “This project is asking you to change the nature of the neighborhood. Please do not approve these changes.”
Another homeowner expressed frustration. It was difficult to figure out when 91 Hope St. would be on the board’s agenda; whether the agenda would include a public hearing; waiting for hours for your three minutes to speak; struggling to understand zoning lingo and procedure.
It’s exhausting, said the homeowner, who did not want her name published. “I don’t want to fight about this anymore,” she said.
She’s grateful that the developer worked with neighbors, but “it doesn’t matter if we want 26 units next to us or not. It’s going to happen,” the homeowner said. “It seems like the Zoning Board really doesn’t care. Nothing we said changed anything.”
Quality of life for Stamford residents “should be a factor,” the homeowner said.
Doig agreed.
“We’re not opposed to a development here. We just want it to be less dense and not so high,” Doig said. “Quality of life is so important. It should be foremost in their thoughts. What this board decides affects Glenbrook from now on. Glenbrook is changed forever.”
Board members this week indicated their approval for the project with almost no discussion. Though nothing is sure until Monday’s meeting, “I don’t know how the board will say no, because they feel like the developer has acquiesced to many of our wishes,” Doig said. “But we’re still going to have a 26-unit complex in our backyards.”